stories and illustration

There is still snow on the hills, or rather the sprinkling of snow has come back. The fields are being ploughed, revealing the chestnut and chocolate earth of Berwickshire and North Northumberland. The new machines turn the earth and render it to fine grains and smooth it out, the newly-ploughed field is a thing of beauty and elegance. But if you walk along the edge of the fields across the river, there is little evidence of wildlife or even birds, apart from the crows and the ubiquitous wood pigeons. I remember many years ago living in the Liddel Valley, on the edge of the Middle Marches, looking at the fields after they had been drained and thinking how wonderful they looked. But now that the fields over there have been left to roughen up again, become rushy and bumpy, or thick with flowery long grass, there is an abundance of wildlife. Saw a deer on the edge of the woods. And merlins up on the hillslope. Small flowers among the stones on the pathways. Nature taking over again, sharing with the hefted sheep.

I love these little birds – they flit about in gangs, tweet-tweeting, you just suddenly become aware of them in bushes, recognise them by their long tails. I think I must have seen them when I was a child, just the sight of them and the sound of them gives me a pleasure I can’t really explain. I see wonderful portraits of birds on the Internet, and this is just a snapshot, but I was glad to get a picture of the creature before it darted away. I put long-tailed tits on the cover of a book called The Mouse of Gold, really because I think the birds are so pretty it was fun to paint them. This is a Spring picture.

This handsome horse has a companion, I am glad to say, unlike the mournful character who inhabited this field at the tail-end of last year. This horse just looked at me mildly, not bothering to approach nor to back-off, obviously quite happy in this field with its equine companion, a Shetland pony. Through watching various behaviours and distress, I have come to realise that horses need company, and get distressed when that company is taken away.

This wood, that lines the Tweed from Lennel up to Lennel Cemetary, is quiet in the winter, but then in Spring the rooks take over, cawing endless, wheeling about the trees then settling in the top-most branches. The nests are there, like growths in the trees, all the year round. Birds seem to make more noise on fine days. I found it hard to capture the rooks in flight together with the nests, but got a clearer image of two of them at the top of this battered-looking tree:

Strange how different species of crow behave so differently. The rooks do stay together in big colonies. Crows are more solitary, though you do see them sharing road kill. I was pleased yesterday to have two jackdaws feeing on the bird table, though they flew off quick when they saw me peering at them between the leaves. In an old house I once lived in the jackdaws would nest in the chimneys. Every now and then a jackdaw fell in, and would descend, scrabble by scabble, till it appeared, blinking, filthy, in the fireplace. One jackdaw started flying round the room early in the morning. We had pale cord curtains, and big sooty prints of jackdaw wings were imprinted on the material as it flew round in a panic at being enclosed.

These three swans have taken up residence where Leet Water runs into River Tweed. They feed on the grass in this corner of the green much of the day, but when I go too near they quite slowly waddle off towards the water, with their large delicate wings outspread. Swans make so many different shapes with their bodies, it fascinates me to look at them.

About

I’m Cara, and I live in Coldstream, in the Scottish Borders As well as writing and illustrating books for children I have recently been painting on canvas, in my octagonal studio (aka The Tardis) which inhabits a corner of the vegetable garden. My work for children has been published in several countries, and translated into different languages. My favourite form at the moment is the picture book, but I have also had published poetry, children’s novels, and illustrations for the work of other authors. I go out most days with my camera and create blog entries from the results. Some of the pictures I take will be used as background material for the picture book which I am working on at the moment. My son Matty set up this WordPress blog for me, and it has added a dimension to my life which surprises me. It is also interesting and inspiring to read the blogs of other people from different parts of the world, and to look at their sometimes fascinating pictures.